Charles County jail inmate dies days after she was found hanging in cell

An inmate died in an apparent suicide in the Charles County jail after she was held for three days for missing a court appearance.

Cara Rachell Dorwart, 27, of Waldorf was found hanging from a bedsheet in her cell Oct. 1. Medical personnel at the jail were able to revive her using CPR and an automated external defibrillator, but she died Oct. 4 at Charles Regional Medical Center, the county sheriff’s office said in a statement Friday.

Dorwart previously pleaded guilty to theft under $1,000 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was released in March 2015 after serving just over a year of her sentence, according to court records.

Court records indicate that she then violated her probation, and sheriff’s office spokeswoman Diane Richardson said that Dorwart was wanted for failing to appear in court. She was arrested Sept. 29 for that reason and held on $5,000 bail, which Richardson said she could not pay.

According to court records, Dorwart had previously been sentenced to 60 days in jail for a 2009 instance of theft under $100. A second theft charge, after her first jail term, was dropped by prosecutors.

On the day Dorwart was found hanged, Richardson said, she spent time with other inmates in a common area. Then corrections officers saw her enter her cell about 3:20 p.m. She was there alone for 40 minutes before an officer found that she had apparently attempted suicide.